Introduction
You might not know what to anticipate if your business or technology has never undergone a pen test or vulnerability scan. Especially whether you have, you might be curious about the steps and technique of pen testing. You can likely profit from the procedure more if you are aware of what to anticipate.
Penetration Testing Stages has seven steps. Let’s go through each one so that your company is ready for this kind of security examination.
Table of Contents
Penetration Testing Stages Comprises Seven Phases
1. Pre-Engagement
Hiring a security tester and letting them loose on your network is a poor idea. Throughout the pre-engagement stage, the scope, practicalities, rules of warfare, and schedule are discussed and agreed upon.
Prior to speaking with suppliers, it is crucial to understand whether you want to be evaluated or why. There are various methods of Penetration Testing Stages. The tester might need to visit a local office site for some types of testing, such as wireless or tactile testing. For example, one can do the assessment of networks or online applications remotely.
In terms of application, specifying your scope will enable you to rank the assets assessed and frequently has a direct bearing on the cost. The specifics of the test you’re doing will determine its scope. You should know the IPs or subnetworks you want to examine when performing a networking pen test. On the contrary, if you’re performing a software pen test, you ought to be aware of the program’s size, intricacy, and desired user role testing.
Additionally, it must establish a timetable for each pentest. You should specifically set the study’s length with the supplier since these tests frequently lack a clear end-state. Additionally, it would be best if you established the testing range prior to the schedule because it has a significant effect on the progress needed to test the resources thoroughly. For instance, a Fifty active IP corporate network pen tester will take less time to complete than a 500 IP analysis with the same degree of intensity.
The terms of involvement are a signed agreement between the entity undergoing the exam and the examiner. Terms of participation specify exactly whatever the pentester is and is not permitted to perform on your system since many of the acts they conduct are prohibited without express authorization. It must fully specify any actions you do not want to be done in this agreement. List any crucial resources in this contract that the examiners must pay close attention to in addition.
2. Reconnaissance
The reconnaissance stage employs open-source information-collecting methods to gain a deeper understanding of the targeted network and infrastructure. You’d be astonished at the information that is available for free from public sources.
The group’s public homepage, social networking sites like Linkedin, media, PR materials, and other sources are frequently implemented to acquire information. How is all of this knowledge useful, you might wonder?
For instance, LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for gathering employee data. Finding contact details for a malicious scam or recognizing security management might be more accessible by knowing the names and responsibilities of the company’s personnel.
Open-source programs like Shodan and otherwise Censys can be used by criminals to obtain network data. These programs continually index and give us an opportunity to public-facing Email accounts. With no need to continuously monitor the open network, the examiner may start constructing an image of it thanks to this.
3. Discovery
There are two components to the discovery process.
- Getting more information.
- Vulnerability assessment.
The first step is employing a variety of ways to learn more about the targeted system. Let’s discuss a couple of them.
- Hackers may find domain names and IP data using DNS questioning, InterNIC requests, and networking eavesdropping.
- It can find information about applications and services through banner capturing.
- Employing Net BIOS scanning, the tester may learn about the system’s identities and files when in an interior test.
The second step involves checking for security flaws in the software or the program. You may order an automatic scan that compares the system to a database of vulnerabilities. Alternatively, you can choose a comprehensive scan in which security experts examine the designs by hand. While the former is quicker, the second is more suited for identifying fresh and subtle flaws.
Analysis of Vulnerabilities
Throughout a security assessment, this will find different threat factors. Each of those danger elements has to be connected to a flaw, which should then be prioritized based on the threat it provides to the network.
You require a well-specified and repeatable procedure for assessing the seriousness and danger of the vulnerability. A VAPT provider’s responsibility is to evaluate the exposures and present a concise picture that you can comprehend and act against.
Even though it might be challenging to rate vulnerabilities precisely, many VAPT businesses rate the risks using a semi-quantitative approach. An internationally recognized way of generating a quantitative number based on the seriousness of a problem is the Vulnerable To the impacts Points System.
You can determine whether a vulnerability is a low, moderate, or severe intensity using the CVSS assessment. Whenever it gets to remedial, the last part of pen testing, you might prefer one risk above another based on these variables.
Post-exploitation and Exploitation
Phases one through three set the scene for step four, exploitation. Here, gaining access to a computer utilizing the vulnerabilities found in earlier vulnerability testing stages is the objective. The pentester looks for resources that may be accessible thru a portal of entry after trying to identify them.
In order to avoid compromising or impeding the business capabilities, the pentesters must exercise extreme caution throughout this phase. System crashes do sometimes occur when doing Penetration Testing Stages, though.
The stage after exploitation
The next task is to assess the usefulness of that access point after the penetration tester has discovered a vulnerability and compromised it. They wonder about the following issues.
- What degree of access would the starting point provide?
- How simple is it to keep access?
- How long may it take for the breach to be discovered?
- What kind of damage might the vulnerability lead to?
The examiner is assisted by the exposure and post-exploitation stages in gaining access to, finding sensitive information, locating communication routes, etc. They might also attempt to widen the hole by taking advantage of the channel’s connections between other systems.
The engagement guidelines decided upon during the pre-engagement phase govern the degree to which a penetration tester may attack a specific vulnerability.
Suggestions and Monitoring
A VAPT analysis is prepared in this step and delivered to the customer as a result of all the earlier vulnerability testing processes. The pentesters offer comprehensive data about the flaws throughout the reporting process.
- The explanation of the weaknesses.
- Ratings are based on a standard scoring methodology for vulnerabilities.
- Impact and degree of susceptibility.
- Report on risk analysis.
- POC videos.
- Suggestions for addressing the flaws.
How fast and effectively you can recreate and patch the problems in your system depends on the caliber of the VAPT analysis.
How does Cyber Security Work ?
Step-by-step fixes are suggested in the VAPT analysis for the problems. Your programmers can follow these suggestions to plug security holes in your software. You should receive assistance from the VAPT business you are working with for the vulnerability scanning at each stage of this procedure.
This is a good illustration of a restoration procedure.
- Reports of vulnerabilities provide thorough remedy procedures.
- The security experts provide support through video.
- When necessary, developers have a conference call to go over the corrective actions.
The VAPT business should provide rescans after this address the flaws to find any potential security gaps that may have gone unnoticed.
Conclusion
We’ve covered seven Penetration Testing Stages of pen testing, from data collection through evaluation and vulnerability eradication.
All of these stages are interconnected and merit careful consideration. Making ensuring that neither of the steps is skipped or disregarded is crucial for you.
Keep in mind that a vulnerability study without thorough reconnaissance is unlikely to be accurate. Select a VAPT supplier with a track record of quality, invest your faith in them, and get prepared to address those weaknesses.
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FAQ
1. What happens once the seven steps of a penetration test have been completed?
Rescans of your software is performed by the VAPT business once the vulnerabilities have been identified and resolved. You could be given a satisfactory VAPT license by the VAPT business if the rescans reveal no more vulnerabilities. Through the use of the license, you may meet the minimal standards for pentesting necessary to comply with several regulations, including HIPAA, ISO, FISMA, SOC2, and others.
2. What are some of the standard tools available for pentesting?
- Astra vulnerabilities checker.
- Zed Attacking Proxy.
- Arachni.
- and W3af.
3. How long does it require to finish all of the penetration stages of testing?
It shouldn’t require more than ten days to complete the first seven steps of the testing process, from reconnaissance to creating a VAPT assessment. Depending on how comprehensive the exam is, the timeline can change a little.
How soon your project team can implement the solutions suggested by exploring the potential team will determine how long the remediation process will take. However, a VAPT firm’s complimentary rescans are often only available for a limited period.
